Several US technology and financial media outlets are reporting that the company he co-founded with younger brother John Collison is in discussions about a financing round that will see the company valued at $5bn (€4.5bn).

“This story is false,” said Mr Collison. “We've never even contemplated raising such a vast amount of money.”

The company has already raised $190m (€171m) from high profile Silicon Valley investors, including Peter Thiel and Elon Musk.

Stripe makes it easy for websites to accept online payments. It’s used by thousands of companies around the world and is now seen as serious competition to PayPal.

Stripe recently completed deals with Facebook and Twitter to power ‘buy now’ ecommerce functions on the social media sites.

Stripe, which is based in San Francisco, was founded in 2010 by the Limerick brothers.